Ten More Tips on How to Write Your Novel

by C. Patrick Schulze

Listen to a PODCAST of this article.

Welcome back. It’s nice to have you visit again. In today’s post, I’ll piggyback off of yesterday’s Ten Tips on How to Write a Novel with ten more all-purpose tips. Hope you find something here you can use.

Here are the first Ten Tips on How to Write a Novel.

Let’s pick up with number 11.

Keep your attitudes in check. This relates to the classic issues of “show vs. tell.” If you tell your reader the forest is ominous, that’s your opinion. What if your reader finds your ominous is his exhilarating? Your goal is to allow them to make up their own mind by offering them setting rather than sets. If you must offer an opinionated word or two, it works better if you use them within your dialogue.

12. Readers enjoy a good riddle, so give it to them. If you can work in a bit of mystery into your story, all the better.

13. Watch your speech tags. Most recommend you shy away from the classic error of substituting actions for the word, “said.” If you must use a word other than “said,” it’s best to use them in a preceding or following sentence. Here’s an example:

     Jane sighed and responded, “If I must.”
     It should read, 
     “Jane sighed when she responded. “If I must.”

14. Effect never comes before cause. When writing sentences, your best option is to place your active noun first, follow this with the action that occurs and then the effect of the action. Your victim doesn’t die before the murderer fires the gun and people recommend your sentence structure should mimic this concept.

15. Write with specificity. Now there’s a good word. By this I mean to get away from all the weak words we all use. Generally, Most often, these words end in “ly.” However, you might also find those pesky three-word phrases that need paring. You know what I mean, all those, “long, hot nights” or the “hard, packed ground” entries.

16. Write with conciseness. Rather, write with simple words and not with words like “conciseness.” Also, search out and eliminate phrases that can be replaced by single words. An example is, “due to the fact” might become “because.”

17. The pace of your novel is important. Imagine a car chase at three miles per hour. Sort of loses something, doesn’t it? Short choppy sentences speed up your writing, while long sentences slow it down. The same holds true for paragraphs and even chapters.

18. Suspense is super. Imagine your hero rushes in to diffuse the bomb. He grits he teeth as he glances at the timer. It says he’s got forty-seven days. Puff. There goes your suspense. Ticking clocks, proverbial or otherwise, help to build suspense.

19. The primary tools you have available to build characters are details, mannerisms and dialogue.

20. Good scenes need good structure. Chapters fill in well when they have three scenes, all of which should move your story toward its conclusion. Each scene requires conflict and an outcome of that conflict. Scenes also either resolve conflict or advance it.

Now, which of these ideas would you like fleshed out?

Are these suggestions everything you need to craft a well-writing novel? Nope. But they’re good start. Best of luck.

As always, you know I wish for you only best-sellers.

C. Patrick Schulze

Author of the emerging novel, “Born to be Brothers”

The Secrets to Pace in Your Novel

By C. Patrick Schulze

To listen to a podcast of this article, click HERE.

As you write your novel, you’ll find conflict is a key tool in developing the readers’ interest and conflict goes hand-in-hand with the pace of your scenes. If what I call the Read-Speed is slow, the impact of your conflict is much diminished. Further, as an author, you should pay great attention to the speed at which your novel reads. If it’s overall pace or Read-Speed is tedious, the reader will set your book down. Now, there are any number of techniques by which an author can increase the pace of his story and I’ll cover some of the best in this blog post.

One often ignored practice is to manipulate the amount of white space on the page. To clarify what I mean, imagine a sheet of paper filled with text, top to bottom, side to side, one line after the other without breaks. You can visualize how this would overpower the reader, slow the pace and make for difficulty when reading. In contrast, white space makes for a faster read and a better rhythm. The mere fact the reader flips the pages more often also gives the illusion of speed.

Write in short, choppy sentences, in particular when employing dialogue. Your sentences should be meaningful, of course, but quick lines make for faster reading which, in turn, increases the tempo.

One secret often missed is working with sentence fragments, which work well to increase the pace of your writing. Of course, fragments are frowned upon in the writing world, yet the judicious use of them can be quite effective. In those nail-biting scenes that hinge upon the conflict in your novel, well-used and well-positioned fragments can increase the excitement, and thus, the pace of the conflict. Always. Every time. Like this. Use discretion, however, for you can lose control if you’re not careful. In fact, I reviewed a book the other day and put it aside after reading the first paragraph. Its one-sentence construction covered at least two inches of page space, contained four hyphens and three semicolons. It was absolutely unintelligible. The moral is exercise caution when writing in sentence fragments.

You can utilize shorter words to boost the tempo of your story. Anything that slows your reader, slows the pace. Review your four or longer syllable words and consider replacing them with diminutive, or rather, shorter and easier to pronounce synonyms. For example, you might reconsider the use of the word, “antagonism,” when “anger” will suffice.

Be cautious of argot the middling may not twig. That is to say, don’t use terminology your average reader won’t understand. When you force them to take their mind off the story and focus on individual words, their reading slows to a snail’s speed.

Consider the power behind the words you choose. (How many times have we heard this one?) Does your character dream in nightmares or is he haunted by them? I think you can see the power in the word, “haunted” when compared to, “dreams.” As to verbs, consider the difference between someone who “falls” to someone who “collapses”. Falling could mean anything from tripping to going over a cliff. In contrast, “collapse,” assuming it fits the scene, indicates loss of bodily control. If there is no chance your reader will misinterpret what you wrote, they won’t have to reread a sentence to make sense of it. Anytime they reread anything, your pace suffers.

Don’t retell information. Your reader already knows what happened in prior chapters. To loop back to an earlier point in your story will simply slow the reader, and your plot.

Use active voice. Passive voice is a slower read. “He was planning to do the work,” reads slower and with less strength than, “He planned to do the work.” Take your time to learn about active voice. It’s a powerful tool to use when writing your novel.

For more about this subject, consider THIS POST by Gail Martin in her blog titled, “Novel Journey,” or THIS ONE by Roz Denny Fox at her romance blog, “Desert Rose.”

Look to the pace of your novel and your audience will offer better word of mouth advertising in return.

As always, I wish you best-sellers.

C. Patrick Schulze

Author of the emerging novel, “Born to be Brothers.”